List of world records in rowing

The rowing world records are the fastest times set over the international rowing distance of 2000 m. They are believed to be correct as of 24/8/2014.

Rowing times are strongly affected by weather conditions, and to a lesser extent by water temperature – the majority of these times were set in warm water with a strong tailwind. World best rowing times have also decreased because of improvements in technology to both the boats and the oars, along with improvements in the conditioning of the rowers.

Because environmental conditions have a strong impact on boat speed, FISA recognizes world best times instead of world records. A world best time is one recorded on a regatta course that has previously held the World Championships, Olympic Games, or World Cup since 1980. A number of record times were set at the 2005 World Championships held on the Nagara River at Kaizu, Gifu Prefecture, Japan, but due to a fast current caused by heavy rainfall from the remnants of Typhoon Mawar, FISA declared that the race results were not eligible to be considered as world best times.

There is a category for lightweight rowing. For men the crew average, wearing racing kit, cannot exceed 70 kg (154 lb) and no rower may be over 72.5 kg (160 lb). For women the limits are 57 kg (126 lb) and 59 kg (130 lb).

The greatest distance rowed in 24 hours is 342 km (212.5 miles) by Hannes Obreno, Pierre Deloof, Tim Brys, Mathieu Foucaud, Thijs Obreno, Giel Vanschoenbeek, Arjan Van Belle and Thibaut Schollaert (all Belgians) on the watersportbaan, Ghent, Belgium, on 02-3 October 2014.

All eight participants are members of the Vlaamse Studenten Roeiers.

These results are based on a standard distance of 2,000 meters.

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